Conroe-based firm to buy AstroWorld site

REAL ESTATEAstroWorld site soldAngel/McIver to buy land, but no decision made on possible use

By Nancy Sarnoff |
May 11, 2006

Six Flags has found a buyer for the former AstroWorld property, bringing the redevelopment of this closely watched site one step closer.

Angel/McIver Interests, based in Conroe, is under contract to buy the 104-acre tract. The land development firm said the purchase price was confidential, but Six Flags reported it as $77 million in a recent news release on earnings.

The sale is expected to close next month, but the property's fate is still unclear.

"We're in the planning and evaluation stages, and we'll announce future plans at a later date," Michael McIver, president of Angel/McIver Interests, said.

The size of the former AstroWorld property and its location along the 610 Loop near Reliant Center and the light rail line make it ideal for a dense urban type of development with a combination of uses, local architects and developers have said.

"It's connected to so many different modes of transportation and so many employment centers it would be great if some really smart people could develop it in such a way that really took advantage of all those qualities," said Larry Albert, a local architect who teaches a course in site planning at Rice University's School of Architecture. "You could develop a place there where people could live without a car."

A team of architecture students at the University of Houston has even created a master plan for the site as part of a semester-long project. The proposal includes a campuslike environment with a variety of low- to high-rise buildings, a hotel, shops, convention center, restaurants, garden homes and a lake.

Located along the South Loop between Fannin and Kirby, the property that once housed legendary roller coasters and winding water rides now sits vacant.

All the rides and other structures have been taken down in recent months since the park closed last year after 37 years in business.

When the company announced the closing last fall, it said attendance had been on the decline, while the value of the real estate had gone up.

The $77 million purchase price amounts to nearly $17 per square foot, or $740,385 an acre.

There was no official asking price for the property. A broker with one of the real estate firms handling the sale said last year that other properties in the area had been selling for more than $25 per square foot.

Some see the current sales price as more realistic.

"I think it's a fair number for that property," said Stan Creech, a local independent property broker.

Still, prices in the area have been rising in recent years.

That's because this area south of the Loop has been transforming from a mostly industrial hub to one with more retail businesses and homes.

The sale of the AstroWorld site is set to close in early June and is subject to customary closing conditions, Wendy Goldberg, a spokeswoman for New York-based Six Flags, said.

The theme park operator reported the pending sale this week in a first-quarter earnings announcement.

Cushman & Wakefield and the Staubach Co. are marketing the property, but neither company would comment on the sale, citing confidentiality agreements.